Hello dear Founders,
As promised, here’s an update on the INDX nozzles.
 
The nozzles supplied with the Founder Edition are surface-hardened, not fully hardened as originally advertised, and we apologize for getting this specification wrong.
 
Since our previous communication, we have been running comparative wear tests to understand what this actually means in real-world use. These tests are taking longer than initially expected, but in this case, that turns out to be a good thing.
 
With standard carbon-fiber materials, such as PETG-CF and PA11-CF, we were not yet able to wear down the current INDX surface-hardened nozzles to the point where it would affect print quality. Our testing units have gone through 10 kg of PC-CF with no visible wear.
 
Prusa is doing more extensive testing on their testing print farm and the results so far are consistent with ours. Their PETG-CF test nozzles have each printed around 10 kg of material, PC-CF nozzles around 5 kg each, and PA-CF nozzles around 2-3 kg each. They have measured some minor wear at the nozzle orifice, but so far without any corresponding change in extrusion width, print accuracy or visible print quality. Prusa also uses PETG Ultraglow as an accelerated wear test, as this filament is known to wear out even most nozzles on the market at a fast rate.These nozzles are not suitable for use with PETG Ultraglow for this reason.
 
Any nozzle, hardened or not, will eventually wear out. That said, if your main use case is printing pretty much only abrasive materials continuously, the current nozzles are not the right solution for you**.** 
 
We are investigating a more wear-resistant nozzle solution for these extreme use cases.
 
Regardless of the encouraging test results, the specification you purchased was not the specification we delivered. Here is how we are going to resolve that - you choose whichever option fits you best.
 
Option 1 - Keep your INDX, with compensation for each affected nozzle:

• $20 / €17.50 in Bondtech Store credit per nozzle, or
• $15 / €13 as a cash refund per nozzle

 
For a complete kit, that means:

• 8-tool INDX kit: $160 / €140 store credit, or $120 / €104 cash refund
• 4-tool INDX kit: $80 / €70 store credit, or $60 / €52 cash refund

 
The amounts are based on the average percentual price difference between standard and fully hardened nozzles on the market.
 
Option 2 - Return your INDX Founders Edition for a full refund, at no cost to you, no questions asked, if the current nozzle specification doesn't fit your use case.
 
To claim either option, submit a ticket at bondtech.se/contact with:

• your order number
• your choice: store credit, cash refund, or return

 
We'll confirm your claim and process it as quickly as we can. If you have questions before deciding, ask them in the same ticket and we'll answer there.
 
These two options are how we resolve the nozzle specification issue: by claiming one, you accept it as the resolution of this matter. This does not affect your further warranty for anything else - that remains exactly as it was.
 
Please let us know your preferred option by mid-september. If we do not hear from you by then, we will consider the matter inactive and close it for administrative purposes. This will not affect any rights you may have under applicable consumer protection laws, and you are still welcome to contact us about this matter within the time limits those laws provide.
 
We apologize again for the incorrect original specification and for how long it took us to provide a clear resolution. We wanted to complete enough testing to give you a meaningful picture of the actual nozzle performance.
 
The Bondtech team

TLDR; Stop suppressing criticism. In fact, this toxic fanboying ends up hurting the company far more than genuine feedback ever could by pushing customers away and even Prusa themselves clearly don't want a hostile community representing their brand.

I’ve been in the 3D printing hobby for years. My farm currently sits with a mix of Vorons, Creality, Elegoo, Snapmaker, and mostly Prusa machines including an XL 5 head, five MK4S printers, a MK3S+, and a Core One currently waiting on the INDX upgrade. I don't have a Bambu Labs printer and I'm not planning to for various reasons. I point this out only to establish that I actually like and use Prusa products.

Lately though, I’ve found myself liking Prusa less and less. Look no further than the recent XL+ upgrade kit rollout. Most of what that kit "upgrades" are just basic fixes for flaws that should have been solved in the original design. On top of that, the upgrade kit is completely overpriced,  they don't even clarify what items are actually included in the box. To add insult to injury, instead of clarifying the contents, they bumped the price up even higher just days after announcing it.

Despite things like this happening, the state of the fan culture surrounding Prusa, especially in this subreddit I don't know about Discord, has become downright toxic. It genuinely feels less like a user community and more like a cult where independent thought is treated as blasphemy.

The "Defend the Brand at All Costs" Mentality

Companies exist to make a profit. We give them our hard earned money in exchange for a product based on their marketing and defined specifications. If a product fails to meet those expectations, consumers have every right to criticize it.

Yet, any time someone posts constructive feedback, reports a widespread hardware flaw, or points out a feature where competing brands like Snapmaker, Bambu, or Creality are genuinely outperforming Prusa, the diehard fanboys rush in to blindly defend the company. Why? Is it buyer’s remorse? Is it a coping mechanism to justify spending a premium price tag by convincing themselves that nothing else on the market could possibly be better?

Instead of addressing the actual technical arguments, the community defaults to gatekeeping, downvoting, and discrediting the user. A perfect example of how bad It’s gotten Look no further than this recent post where a user simply shared their genuine, frustrating experience with a printer.

Because the user used an AI tool to help clean up their English grammar and spelling, the comment section completely ganged up on them. Instead of focusing on the actual hardware issue, people dismissed them, called them a bot, downvoted them into oblivion, and attacked them personally. It got so hostile that an actual Prusa employee Nomad had to step into the thread, verify the user was a real person, and tell everyone to knock it off, he was genuinely helpful to check where was the slip up in communication .

Think about that: Prusa’s own staff had to intervene to protect a customer from Prusa’s own fanboys. Prusa Staff are genuinely kind and helpful while the die hard fans are not. They are actually damaging Pursa's reputation with this behavior.

Constructive Feedback Makes Better Products
No single brand holds a monopoly on good engineering. If another company makes a feature that works better than Prusa's implementation, users should be free to say it without being labeled an anti Prusa troll. If a Prusa machine ships with a defect or fails to meet expectations, calling it out helps the company iterate and produce better products for all of us.

When you silence constructive feedback and bully anyone with an issue out of the community, you aren't protecting Prusa. You are actively ruining the community with toxicity, creating an echo chamber, and shielding a multi million dollar corporation from the standard accountability every consumer deserves.

At the end of the day, we are consumers, not disciples. You should feel completely free to praise any 3D printing company when they get something right, and just as free to criticize them when they mess up. Brand loyalty shouldn't stop us from holding manufacturers accountable or having honest discussions about the tools we buy. We don't criticize for fun or just to complain, we do it because pointing out a company shortcomings is what pushes the company to make better products.

Last year, I submitted a very thorough review of my time with the Prusa XL. (https://old.reddit.com/r/prusa3d/comments/1m79cyu/one_year_with_the_prusa_xl_review/) The original article in question is currently down, due to a planned website outage, but archive.org has you covered if you want to see it-- https://web.archive.org/web/20250828145813/https://nocoffei.com/?p=366

(P.S. Thank you Tommy for responding to my original post, I didn't see it until I logged back in to write this post as I never use reddit.)

In that post what I wanted to see most was a second revision of the XL, which set out to fix the platforms many, many little problems in one unified package. So I just wanted to write a quick follow up seeing as the XL+ upgrade is targeted very specifically at me in particular-- I'm hesitant to buy it when I don't know why it costs so darn much.

The Core One++ upgrade is $55. Why does this cost $560, an already further price increase from the initially stated $500? (Or $690 if I bought new nozzles...) Why of that price do I need 5 new dwarf boards because mine are a 2022 model, despite the fact that this unit shipped in 2024 (and our 2th -> 5th upgrade shipped in 2025)?

I was nodding my head along vigorously when I read the initial announcement post-- these upgrades clear up so many endlessly irritating paper cuts with this machine. I can't count the number of times I've started a TPU print, walked away, and returned to find that the nozzle was too dirty to finish """nozzle cleaning""" on the bed and gave up and stopped the print. A nozzle wiper fixes that. And I have similar things to say about every other addition offered-- this kit, speaking from an experienced operator of this machine, really does achieve its stated goal of "improv[ing] the everyday experience". (Aside from offering an out of the box way to print TPU, which is a surprising omission, but I'm printing so much of it at such high speeds at this point that I'm happy with my solution of printing out of a PolyDryer sitting above the printer.)

I just... Maybe I've been spending too much time online lately, but I felt it was worth offering the feedback that I'm currently unlikely to buy it just due to the sheer price differential.

(And because I've been spending too much time online lately, I should preface this post by stating that no, emdashes do not automatically mean I lifted text from an LLM to write this, they've been part of my writing style for years.)

I have spool of TM3D bronze PETG thats behaving like its wet, stringing leaving blobs etc the whole thing, it printed fine some time ago. I dried it for 8 hours at 55 °C and no improvement after that 12 hours at 55 °C and no improvement.

I have no issues with TM3D brass, TM3D transparent, several prusament types and xtrudr PETG. It just dries ok with 6-8 hours at 55 °C as advised by prusa.

I dont suspect prusaslicer because its a custom profile and also tried two completely different hotends. The stuff just doesn't want to print anymore.

Any similar experiences and if possible solutions ?

Decided to breakdown the pricing of the upgrade options per kit to help with my decision making and figured it would be worth sharing with the class. All prices in USD.

Feel free to fill in any gaps I may have missed or correct any assumptions I have made. I'll update the OP.

Facts

• The dwarf boards are always $20 per toolhead.
• Replacement dwarf boards are $57.99 currently.
• A new .4 CHT nozzle in the spare parts section is $26.99. The upgrade for the 1TH is $3 more expensive. For the 2TH the nozzles are $4 cheaper total and the 5TH is $5 cheaper total.
• When just looking at the first column (without dwarf boards or nozzles) The 2TH per head cost is $59.01 (309-249.99) and the 5TH is $52.25 ((459-249.99)/5).
• Price includes import. Not sure how to estimate that cost.

Upgrades and estimated costs

I've left the unknown costs blank below and only put prices for comparable items currently on Prusa spare parts section or other printing stores.

Assumptions

• Using the above per head upgrade price, I'm estimating the non-toolhead parts are billed around $189.99 (249.99-60).

Yesterday while chatting with support on where the heck to actually find the serial number for the dwarf boards, I checked the price with all 5 dwarf boards and no nozzles and the price was $499 thinking worst case scenario.

Today the price is $559...

What in the heck is going on?!